Imperfect Roll Arrangement Compensation Control based on Neural Network for Web Handling Systems

The speed and tension control problem of a web handling system is investigated in this paper. From the system equations of motion, we developed a backstepping-sliding mode control for web speed and tension regulation tasks. It is obvious that the designed control depends heavily on roll inertia information. Dissimilar to other researches that were based on the assumptions of rolls with perfect cylindrical form with the rotating shafts of the rolls considered properly aligned, the novelty of this paper is the presentation of a neural network to compensate the effects of imperfect roll arrangement. The neural network design is based on the Radial Basis Function (RBF) network estimating the uncertainty of roll inertia. The information on estimated inertia is fed into a backstepping-sliding mode controller that ensures tension and velocity tracking. The control design is presented in a systematical approach. Closed loop system stability is proven mathematically. The tracking performance is shown through several simulation scenarios.